Never look down power: The relationship between looking directions and hierarchical sense

Abstract

Height-power relationship has been commonly found in architecture and interior designs. The earliest experience of the positive relationship between height and power may be found in the stage of infancy. Based on the rationale of embodied cognition in the context of this height-power relationship, the present research speculates that the effect of head movements can affect an individual’s judgment about personal status. Participants in Study 1 did not show this positional effect through upward/downward eyeball movements. Supportive evidence, however, was yielded in Study 2, in which participants wearing VR headsets were required to move their heads to look at stimuli. A synchronized relationship between the viewer and the agent being watched was proposed, which potentially explains a shortcut in the processing of social relationships.